You know that song, “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time…?” Yes, Snowflakes, that’s what I’ve been busy doing. Now, I know you were probably expecting me to drop in and expound upon some great minutia regarding the current status of all things contemporary photographic but, sorry to disappoint, I’ve been too busy off relaxing a bit and working at my day job way to hard these past few weeks. Now, I know too that I always manage to pop in here at the last minute with details about a grand new trip or an exotic jaunt I’m about to take, maybe some exciting new photographic project I’m about to start. Again, here, hate to disappoint but, yes I have been working on a bit of an art project but, frankly, I’m enjoying it way too much to stop doing it and actually try to market it. Simply put, I don’t want to stop making it long enough to actually do something about selling it, so bury my head in the sand I will and make lots more is what I shall do. (I’m too lazy to even describe it to you at this point though, if you’ve been following along, you can probably guess it’s abstract and leave it at that.)
If you’ve been paying attention, it’s also the time of year when I’m supposed to pop in and tell you what a great success 2015 was and how, of course it naturally follows, 2016 is going to be even better. I’ll save you the guesswork on that one too. Taken in its entirety, 2015 was a mixed bag for me. While I sold more work that I have in year’s past, which is (by all accounts) a raging success, I had to cancel a trip (which I hate) and, upon further reflection, all of this year end navel gazing has made me realize that I did not, in fact, leave the continent in 2015. Oh the horror! I so want to go somewhere but, alas, situations did not allow so 2015 found me stuck at the ranch more, much more than I would like. Normally, back at the ranch is not a bad place for me (I’ve said it before, and probably will say it again, I’m sometimes at my best when I bury myself in studio work even if I do wind up feeling like a trapped rat in a cage while making it.) This year has found me so preoccupied I have not been able to create, I’ve just been busy, way too busy, trying to keep my head afloat. Stuck at the ranch can be a good thing if you’re stuck in the studio but just being stuck at the ranch has its downside too.
Now, I can also make promises of “someday, someday,” but this too is starting to feel a bit, shall we say, “elusive” and leave it at that. I’m starting to feel like I’ll never come out from under the daily grind and that, yes, Virginia, maybe all of this fashionable life is just not for me. Ah, the horror of self doubt and the trapping of our day to day existence. It so cuts into making great work, doesn’t it? I wish I could shake it off but these kind of doubts seem to follow me around like a lost puppy dog, only they aren’t nearly as cute.
So, no, I’ll spare you the gory details, the navel gazing, the year end retrospectives but end on a high note. The other day I popped up to Salado and points north, not for anything special, mind you, just more to get out of the house and into the field. While I’m pretty sure I didn’t get any earth shattering results, I did manage to fire off more than a few shots and I feel like somehow, in the process, I managed to chase away my many-month-long loosing streak. Simply put, I *need* to take photographs or make some kind of artwork somehow and, if I go for too long without doing it (without doing *something* *anything*) I start to get a little stir crazy. At least, I’m happy to report, that now this clock has been reset and I’m feeling a bit better, even if I don’t have the wonderful shots from Asia Minor to prove it to you.
Oh, and since I’m getting all happy on you and whatnot, I should also point out that this year I did managed to shoot something like my 4th most popular image on Flickr. I don’t know how, frankly, I didn’t think it the most earth shattering of shots but, I guess it goes without saying really, these days I have way more followers than contacts and (gasp!) actual friends so I guess the universe out in the wild blue yonder cared more for the shot than I had realized from my perch back behind the LCD panel on the baby mark. Hey, I’ll take those kind of shots when I can get them, right? (Don’t get me wrong, I love the perch from behind the baby Mark…I wouldn’t trade that view in for the world although I do wish I could get the viewfinder more out into the world with me behind it.)
I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season yourself (even if you don’t know me very well) and look forward to the photographic challenges (and opportunities!) facing us all in 2016.
Until next time…
This one shot in Georgetown, Texas on the town square with the Canon 5D Mark II and the walkabout zoom lens. Some rather nice shop windows up that way this year, I must confess, though I may have been blinded by my own stir craziness on that one.
